MY GENERAL PROCESS FOR FUNDING A KICKSTARTER

I’m going to have Kickstarter on the brain for the next two months, because we’re launching our Kickstarter for Katrina Hates the Dead (www.wannabepress.com/katrina) on September 8th.
People want to know how to properly market a Kickstarter for maximum impact. There are so many pieces to this question that I’ll try to disseminate in the following months, but let’s just assume you have a kill Kickstarter project put together, it’s finished, and you’ve done a great video.
What are the steps to get your project out there and seen by as many eyeballs as possible? But more importantly to be seen by people who will back your project? Let’s dive in.

Once your campaign starts, it’s very hard to save it. It can be done at a low priced project, but you really want to set it up right.

1. You need 3-6 months to build an audience for a campaign. You build an audience slowly and gradually over time by talking to people, liking their stuff on Facebook, retweet and talking at them on twitter, etc. The most important thing is to actually care about these people, and their lives, not just try to market your stuff. In fact, almost none of it is about marketing you. It’s about sharing cool stuff, asking questions, and finding out about them…just like a friendship. Because that’s what it is.

2. Put together a Facebook page and invest Facebook ads to build likes to your Facebook page. Is Facebook a perfect science? No. Do people like your page just b/c they are click happy, sure they do. But you’re also getting a tailored audience to your product as well. You determine the audience that sees your stuff, so those are actually people that should like what you have to push on them. You can accomplish this for $1-$2 day and build it into your kickstarter budget.

3. Do not just post links to your comic on your Facebook page. Just like any other thing you do on Facebook, you need to build an audience. And that audience doesn’t just want to see you. They want to see all the things that you like. So you need to share other stuff, cool links, etc, and then slip in something about your book every now and then.

4. Get a website and put a preview online. Make sure to add a retarget cookie from Google and Facebook so people that go to your site can be fed ads later on.

5. 3 months out, talk to review sites about doing reviews and/or interviews that coincide with your launch date. You need at least 3 months for them to say yes and to get them the material. If they say no, just hit them up on your next KS.

6. About 2 months out, contact all your high influencer friends and ask if they can help tweet out about your project. Don’t be pushy, just ask once if they can help. Most won’t answer, but a couple will. Again, if you are actually friends with them and not just spamming them, which you should be by now.

7. A month out tell your friends about it and ask then to like your post if they will contribute in the first 24 hours. The 24 hour number is critical. The more people you get in a short time, the more impressive it looks to the KS staff and the more likely you are to be a staff pick.

8. Two weeks out start Facebook message your friends telling them a little blurb about the project and ask if they will contribute. You should message them with a link to your preview and what to expect from the campaign. It’s important to keep informing them what to do throughout the process.

9. A week out, start a Facebook event and invite your friends list to it. Ask them to invite all their friends. Update the time of the invite every day so they get an indication on their feed.

10. When the KS starts, Facebook message every person who said they would help personally. Ask them to donate, share, tweet, and do everything you can to maximize at least 25% of your campaign funds in the first 24 hours. Add a link to the Kickstarter.

11. Every single time somebody contributes, tweet and facebook out a thank you with a link to the KS so more people can contribute.Remind people continually what to expect from them and your goals. When you tweet, hashtag #crowdfunding #kickstarter and tweet at specific crowdfunding twitter and facebook people.

If you can get 25-50% campaign funds in the first 48 hours, and 100 backers in that time, you have a good shot at being a staff pick, which will rocket you higher.

Other things: Don’t set your goal too high. It’s better to fund at $1000 and only do 1 issue than not fund at $5000 because you were too ambitious. Your audience should grow over time if you can deliver high quality products.